Button
by eliphya
Summary: AU. There is a custom in Japan where male students give the second button of their uniform to a female student. The second button is the one located the closest to the heart and shows that the student gives his heart to the one he loves. [NaruHina l OS]


A sigh left Hinata's lips as she stared out of the window to watch the snowflakes gently falling in the freezing cold weather, that the current December brought over Konoha. Her eyes travelled over the city, overlaid by a blanket of white.  
Next to her was Ino, who talked about an event that had happened at the mall last weekend but Hinata couldn't bring herself to listen to the story and drifted away with her troubling thoughts.

"Guys! I have to show you something!" Sakura stood at entrance to the classroom with her clenched fists in the air. She approached her friends with jumping steps and stopped in front of them with the biggest grin they had ever seen on her face. Her cheeks were lightly colored and her eyes had a noticeable glint in them.

"What happened?" Ino already cursed at the girl in her mind, it was definitely to early to shout like that. Sakura did not mind the grimace Ino made instead threw her school bag on her desk and bent down to the sitting girls. She seemed so much more like a little child than a teenager.

"Look what I've got." The group eyed the fist Sakura held in their middle as if they had never seen something of that sort before. She slowly opened it -like a magician, ready to amaze the audience- and exposed a dark, small object.

"A button?" Hinata murmured, trying to connect the dots.  
Ino's eyes widened.

"Whose button is it?" She saw how the grin on Sakura's face grew even wider as she moved her head closer to the girls to whisper "Sasuke-kun's button" in their ears. If there weren't so many people in the classroom, she would be making cartwheels right now.

"Really?" her two friends exclaimed but were immediately shushed by Sakura. Her sudden serious expression turned into a smirk again. She made her hand into a fist and held it to her chest.

Hinata smiled and congratulated Sakura for getting a present from her crush while Ino gave her a skeptical look.

"Did you steal it from him?" she asked and crossed her arms. Sakura's face instantly turned red and she put her arms on her waist.

"No, of course not. He gave it to me," she grunted. "More or less," she added mumbling and turning her head away, making sure they wouldn't hear the latter.  
Ino's facial features softened.

"I just thought of it, since every girl is going mad about this button thing recently."

Few days back, an upperclassman publicly asked for the second button from a boy she liked, in the cafeteria. The attendant crowd had squeaked when the boy cooly ripped off the button of his uniform an gave it to her.  
Even though this was a tradition common for graduation, since that incident nearly every girl wanted to have a button from their crush.

Hinata got flustered by the thought of that day. She had made a confession herself not long before that girl did in the cafeteria. A love confession to the person she liked since elementary school. Not publicly, but still she hadn't been able to hinder the rumors from spreading.

Sakura scanned the face of the dark-haired girl and seemed to know her mind right away.

"Enough of me. Hinata, how is it going with Naruto?" Hinata gasped for air at the sudden mention of her name but turned her gaze on her table right after.

"It's not going at all," she stated quietly.

"He still hasn't said anything about your confession yet?" Ino didn't even try to hide her surprise.

"That's strange," she remarked pondering. "I always thought, that he liked you a lot."

"Well, apparently not in the way I like him," she remarked sheepishly and with a light blush on her cheeks.

It was true that Naruto and Hinata were actually pretty good friends ever since middle school. Hinata helped him raising his poor grades since she had always been fond of him and Naruto liked the presence of the kind and timid girl, who even listened to his strangest thoughts.

Hinata could easily recall the face he made, when she had gathered all her courage and blurted out that she liked him for a pretty long time. He was obviously confused and speechless.  
Seeing his face like that just made the situation even worse for the shy girl and she ran away. They hadn't talked since that day and it had nearly been a week now. There were just a few secret and reserved glances on both sides.  
Hinata sighed again.

"Still…," Ino wondered whilst Sakura put her hands on Hinata's shoulders and squeezed them a little. "Don't give up Hinata, you haven't lost yet." She gave her friend an encouraging smile, which the girl returned after seconds of hesitation.

"Hyuga-san." The three girls looked up. "There is someone asking for you." A boy stood at the entrance to the classroom and gestured with his thumb over his shoulder, he had a slight grin on his face.  
The friends couldn't really see, who was standing behind him and moved their heads to snatch a glimpse of the person who looked for Hinata.

"Yes." Hinata gave her friends a confused look and stood up to step to the doorway.

She was paralyzed when she saw the blond hair and blue eyes.

"N-naruto-kun." He pressed his lips to a thin line and looked daggers at her.  
Overall Naruto didn't really give the impression that he wanted to be here and neither did Hinata. How could he just appear out of the blue like that? He hadn't given her any time to prepare to face him, what she desperately needed.  
Still she couldn't help her heart from skipping a beat at his sight.

"Erm… There is something I have to talk with you about." Naruto's voice was unusually timid and he avoided eye contact towards the end of the sentence.  
Hinata glanced at her friends, who were on their feet and observed them with expectant eyes.

"Okay." Even this little word required a lot of strength to pass her lips in a sufficiently audible manner.

Naruto's eyes roamed their surroundings and he noticed that they were on show right now, since their classmates eyed them curiously, without even trying to hide how obvious they were with their heads leaned and lips curved like that.  
"Maybe somewhere else?" The boy stroked his hair as he caught her flustered look. "After school?" Hinata's eyes widened with the uncertainty if she heard him correctly.

"Okay." While her mouth had fortunately been able to release a sound, her mind had gone hazy without the prospect of clearance anytime soon.

"At the gates?" he asked but his eyes instantly got bigger before she was able to answer. "No no! Not there." He gestured exaggeratedly with his hands and Hinata flinched intuitively.

"At the park behind the school?" he uttered, a trace of redness coloring his ears. Hinata nodded and the boy vanished as sudden as he had appeared.

The moment Naruto was out of their sight, Sakura and Ino rushed to the door and gazed after him, a few other classmates copied them.

"What did he say?" Ino asked but she couldn't really expect an answer because Hinata's brain was still in the middle of processing what had just happened.

* * *

The class was getting quieter as the students left the classroom one by one with the proof of another survived exhausting school day on their faces.  
Sasuke jabbed Naruto's arm, trying to gain his attention. He examined his blond friend raising a brow but without losing his usual cool expression.

"Sorry, what did ya say?" Naruto had finished packing up his things into his bag and was about to stand up.

"I told you to stop dreaming and asked if you were coming." Sasuke's voice made it audible that he wasn't really in the mood of repeating his words.

A sheepish grin settled on Naruto's face and he scratched the back of his head as he shouldered his bag and rose.

"You go without me, I have something to do," he said and hoped that this would close their conversation. Unfortunately Sasuke remained in his company and even turned towards him.

"So the rumors are true." His calm expression turned slightly sly and Naruto didn't overlook the small crook on his friends lips.

"What rumors?" His eyes widened in bewilderment.

"Doesn't matter," Sasuke replied and shook his head. He adjusted his bag, which he had thrown over one shoulder and moved away. "I'm on my way then."

"Wait, what rumors?" he asked loudly, not minding the few students left in the room. "Dude!" But his attempt of getting Sasuke to turn around again were in vain, as he had already stepped into the hallway and disappeared behind the corner.

"Jeez." He narrowed his brows.

After quickly regaining himself, Naruto hurried out of the classroom since he didn't want to make Hinata wait for him for too long. He rashly cut his way between the many students, all directed towards the schools exit.  
Naruto's swift pacing outside was stopped when he heard his name being called. He averted his head and looked at a familiar face.

Neji had his arms crossed over his chest and slowly approached Naruto with a gaze deluging him with disapproval.  
Naruto had met the the boy few times before but still knew two things about him. First, he was Hinata's older cousin, with whom she had a close relationship with and second, for some reason Naruto had managed to gain his dislike. The blond couldn't recall a time he did something to deserve the boys attitude towards him but still had accepted this fact without complaining.

The undecidedness if he should just keep on walking or react to Neji calling him was resolved when Naruto shifted towards him.

"What is it?" he asked, a trace of annoyance sneaked into his tone.  
Neji kept a safe distance when he drew closer, his arms held their firmness on his chest and his eyes the strictness in their gaze.

"I heard that you are dating my cousin." The calmness of his voice made Naruto wonder about the content of the sentence he had just heard.

"What?" was the first thing he was able to reply since it took him some time to get rid of his confusion.

"It's not like you don't know, there is no need to play dumb." Neji's general calm voice mixed with a certain tone of anger. "I don't want you two to have a connection like that."

"Listen, I don't know what the hell you heard and to be honest I don't really care." Naruto lost the frown on his face and pierced his counterpart with equally fierce eyes. He rather wanted to walk away from this boy as soon as possible but something about his attitude made him rage.

"And I don't give a shit about what you want."

* * *

The visibility of her breath in the air grew from minute to minute. Her fingers had already gone numb from the coldness and Hinata cursed at the fact that she forgot her gloves this morning when she left the house.  
She could see the sun setting behind the trees around the park, coloring its surrounding in glowing shades of yellow and orange and creating an illusion of warmth.

Hinata walked up and down to prevent her limbs from freezing. The snow under her boots had stopped making crunching sounds a long time ago because of her never-ceasing steps.  
At times she glanced at the path in the direction of the school, in hope Naruto would appear in her view, sighing every time she was let down.

She had recalled her conversation with the boy -if it would be allowed to be called so- several times, searching for an indication that she misunderstood the appointed time or place. But she had to shake her head at each time she confirmed the appointment.  
Leaving before Naruto's arrival hadn't even brushed her line of thought once as she was sure, that he wasn't a person to abandon a friend waiting for him.

She roamed her eyes around and realized that there wasn't even one person passing by. Suddenly she felt weird, waiting in the snow like this. It was lonely and she was cold.  
The girl wrapped her coat tighter around her body when she paused her movements. Her feet had started to ache and the urge to sit down had increased to the extent, that she wiped down the snow from one of the with snow coated benches and sat down.

But when she heard the quick, approaching crunching of snow, she jumped up from her seat again.  
After blinking a few times to make sure, she wasn't imagining things, Hinata was able to recognize Naruto running down the path, eying her in his sprint.

"Naruto-kun…"

His heavy breathing was seeable in the air but also in the raising and lowering of his chest when he came to a halt in front of her as he supported himself on his knees.

"You're still here," he said out of breath and swallowed to get rid of the dryness of his throat. "I'm sorry for mak-".

"Your eye," Hinata cut him off and stared at his black eye, wondering how she hadn't been able to see it in the distance.

She shoved some snow into her hands and pressed it into a ball before she gently pressed it against his bruise. She was scared of hurting him so it was barely a touch but Naruto could still sense the cooling snow and it felt good.

He caught a glimpse of Hinata's worried expression and it captivated him, making it impossible for him to break his staring. He felt her other hand holding his upper arm so that she could raise on her toes to reach his face comfortably and noticed how close she was, as her torso was just few inches away from his.

"What happened?" she asked and totally threw him out of his agitated thoughts. Naruto didn't want to tell her the truth but she would find out one way or another, so he didn't really have an option.

"Your cousin kinda punched me." It had actually been a strong punch right in his face, whose impact he could still remember very clearly but he didn't want to extend this issue any further. "That's why I'm late, we were scolded by our teachers."

"What? Why would he do that?"

"Forget about it, it doesn't matter." He unintentionally put his hand on hers, which was still holding the snowball to his face. And no matter how numb her fingers had been until now, she could certainly sense his touch and how it steadily defrosted her bit by bit. His fingers lingered on their place and Hinata pondered how it was possible for her to feel heated considering her surrounding.

Naruto broke off their eye contact and silently picked the ball from her hand before he sat down on the bench. Hinata followed him with her gaze and then took her place next to him.

"I'm sorry." Her expression had softened or rather saddened when she started to play with the snow under the tip of her shoe.

"Don't be. I shouldn't have snapped at him either." Since Neji was her cousin he knew that she felt responsible to apologizing in his place even when Naruto thought that she shouldn't.

"Don't worry, it doesn't even hurt anymore," he lied when in reality it throbbed like crazy.

He sighed when he realized that his words didn't achieve the goal of easing her worry.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," he murmured while tearing his hair, making it impossible for her to comprehend. "I should have come earlier and not make you wait in the cold like this." He wasn't really addressing his counterpart but rather himself, not even looking at her while he ranted on.

"And I thought about what I should say but now I can't remember anything," he added desperately and made Hinata raise her brows. She had totally forgotten that Naruto called her here to tell her something.

"You know, when that dude punched me I didn't understand why he would do that." Naruto turned his head towards her but didn't view her as Hinata right now but rather someone he could jabber on about his thoughts. "I mean yeah, he can't stand me but why does he care so much that I like you. Everyone is getting so involved in this as if it's their business."

"What did you just say?" Hinata fixated him with big eyes and shifted closer to make sure she would hear his answer correctly and wouldn't misunderstand. Her question had brought him back to reality and he recalled his previous words, his gaze widening when he detected the reason for her surprise.

"Damn it, that's not how I was suppose to confess," Naruto called, when his eyes popped open. "And now I even cursed." His talkative nature had backstabbed him once again.

But Hinata didn't really mind instead the words "I like you" and "confess" whirred in her head, leading her heart to beat so loud she could literally sense it in her ears.  
She watched him gulping visibly and taking a deep breath to pull himself together. Then he opened the dark down jacket he wore and dug a hand into one of the pockets of his school uniform under it.

"Your hand," he said and Hinata followed his demand, stretching out her hand towards him. She flinched when he got a hold of her and turned her hand around, so that her palm was up. Naruto didn't let go and squeezed her scarcely noticeable. He slowly motioned his other hand over her palm, leaving a small and solid object when he unclasped her hand again.

She looked at the round item for a while until the gears in her head slowly started to rotate again. She rapidly raised her head and searched for Naruto's school uniform. Her mind went blank when she saw that one button was missing.

He wanted to wait for her to face him again before he continued, since he wished that he could confess his feelings distinctly.  
When she eventually locked her eyes with his again, his words came across his lips easier than he expected.

"I _always_ liked you."

Being able to finally say these few words made him feel lighter and overall blissful. He had been in total turmoil this past days, not knowing how to reply to her confession. As if coming clear of ones true feelings towards someone else wasn't hard enough, actually thinking of what to say was nerve-wracking.  
But he was enlightened when his second button had come off last evening. It had been like a lightning bolt creating clearance in his head.  
He remembered how jumpy he had been when he had to stop his mother from sewing the button back on his jacket.

"Really?" Hinata's lips had formed a smile. She had clenched her fist so tightly that she could easily make out the objects shape in it. Her cheeks were red and heated.

"Mhm." He nodded and returned her smile. "A lot," he said softly.

Naruto didn't know where the sudden courage came from that helped him place his hand on hers. The grasp was light and timid at first but when he sensed that Hinata stroked him with her thumb and firmed his caress.  
She was overwhelmed with emotions. She felt shy and embarrassed but also euphoric, grateful and happy.

Suddenly everything seemed perfect. How peaceful it was because there was no one around. How pretty the park looked when its white blanked sparkled in the warm rays of the setting sun. And how good it felt when you knew that the person you liked the most liked you back.

"So, do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"Yes."

* * *

Reviews are really appreciated~


End file.
